It's not easy to relocate the capital city: Minister

Farida Susanty

The Jakarta Post

Jakarta /
Fri, July 7, 2017 / 09:39 am

Public Works and Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono inspects the construction of a seawall project to prevent flooding from high waves in Semarang, Central Java on June 16. (Antara/Aditya Pradana Putra)

Public Works and Public Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono said on Thursday that the relocation of the Indonesian capital city might need four to five years to prepare, particularly the construction of city infrastructure.

“The water drainage, transportation, roads, tram railway and MRT (mass rapid transit) must be prepared,” he said on Thursday.

“It’s not easy. The ministries in Jakarta employ 900,000 people. We also need to prepare [to relocate them],” he said.

He said the ministry had not done any macro planning for the relocation, although it has done a literature study on other countries, which had separated business centers from governmental centers, like Washington DC in the United States.

If the plan is carried out, he said the ministry would be tasked with preparing the infrastructure for the new capital city.

However, he said his ministry would wait for the study by the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) on the possibilities for capital city relocation.

Previously, Bappenas head/National Development Panning Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said his office would complete the study by the end of this year so that the infrastructure development could begin by next year.

However, People’s Consultative Assembly Speaker Zulkifli Hasan called on the government to delay the capital city relocation, saying it was too costly amid the limited funds to finance the government’s projects, particularly infrastructure development that had been stated in the state budget. (bbn)